10-14-2019, 07:02 PM
Animals: Overview
So far I have been presuming that the southern continent received fewer species from RL Earth in relatively recent times than did the northern one, so that most wild animals locally — even if obviously related to ones from RL Earth — belong to endemic species and often to endemic genera or even endemic families. There are also some cases of groups that became extinct in RL but that have survived here, possibly because rivals that outcompeted the RL forms didn’t reach the IDU. On the other hand, some groups of animals that occupy comparable habitats in RL have apparently never managed to establish native populations anywhere in the IDU (unless any nation’s player now insists on having them within their own territories, of course…), either because they simply were never in the right place at the right time to move here or because they did try to move in but were out-competed quite quickly by various rivals.
Some of the larger Carnivorans and — for those nations that formerly had (or maybe even that still have them) — elephants would almost certainly be the newest ‘large mammal’ arrivals (other than Humans, and their domesticated livestock, of course) on land, and probably the only ones from after the end of the Pliocene, although in the ocean various species of whales & dolphins may well have arrived more recently… or might even be capable of crossing freely between worlds whenever they want!
Based on the selection of species that I am listing here, for the continent in general and this nation in particular, you might be thinking “Africa”: The original source for most of these stocks’ ancestors is, however, actually supposed to have been southern or south-western Asia before (a) it dried out, and (b) Humans started hunting the local megafauna to extinction.
The following orders of Mammals are currently confirmed as present: Carnivora, Pholidota, Persissodactyla, Artiodactyla and Cetacea (It now seems that the latter two should be merged as ‘Cetariotdactyla’, but I find it easier to continue listing them separately… ), Myrmecoryctida *, Chiroptera, Primates, (†) Plesidadapiformes, Lagomorpha, Rodentia, (†) Anagalida, Boreodidelphimorphia *, Formicitheria *, Quadriprotodonta *, (†) Deltatherida, (†) Spalacotherida.
Unless RL prevents this I will [eventually] go into greater detail about the endemic and “survivor” species or larger groups listed here, most of which would occur in others of the IDU’s resident nations as well, in separate threads that are specifically about the types of animals rather than about the fauna of any one nation. Some notes about such matters that I am currently storing in this thread will be moved when I do that.
In the following sections I will use one or more asterisks* after a name to indicate that lineages endemic to the IDU, with the number of these marks indicating the number of taxonomic levels (starting, obviously, with the last one listed) for which this is the case: I will note in the accompanying text if a species or subspecies is actually endemic to just this one nation alone. A bracketed ‘dagger’ before a (†) name indicates the survival here of a lineage that is extinct in RL, but in this case you will need to check the following notes to find out how many levels of taxonomic rank are actually involved. I will note in the accompanying text if a species or subspecies is either actually endemic to just this one nation alone or not endemic to this continent at all.
So far I have been presuming that the southern continent received fewer species from RL Earth in relatively recent times than did the northern one, so that most wild animals locally — even if obviously related to ones from RL Earth — belong to endemic species and often to endemic genera or even endemic families. There are also some cases of groups that became extinct in RL but that have survived here, possibly because rivals that outcompeted the RL forms didn’t reach the IDU. On the other hand, some groups of animals that occupy comparable habitats in RL have apparently never managed to establish native populations anywhere in the IDU (unless any nation’s player now insists on having them within their own territories, of course…), either because they simply were never in the right place at the right time to move here or because they did try to move in but were out-competed quite quickly by various rivals.
Some of the larger Carnivorans and — for those nations that formerly had (or maybe even that still have them) — elephants would almost certainly be the newest ‘large mammal’ arrivals (other than Humans, and their domesticated livestock, of course) on land, and probably the only ones from after the end of the Pliocene, although in the ocean various species of whales & dolphins may well have arrived more recently… or might even be capable of crossing freely between worlds whenever they want!
Based on the selection of species that I am listing here, for the continent in general and this nation in particular, you might be thinking “Africa”: The original source for most of these stocks’ ancestors is, however, actually supposed to have been southern or south-western Asia before (a) it dried out, and (b) Humans started hunting the local megafauna to extinction.
The following orders of Mammals are currently confirmed as present: Carnivora, Pholidota, Persissodactyla, Artiodactyla and Cetacea (It now seems that the latter two should be merged as ‘Cetariotdactyla’, but I find it easier to continue listing them separately… ), Myrmecoryctida *, Chiroptera, Primates, (†) Plesidadapiformes, Lagomorpha, Rodentia, (†) Anagalida, Boreodidelphimorphia *, Formicitheria *, Quadriprotodonta *, (†) Deltatherida, (†) Spalacotherida.
Unless RL prevents this I will [eventually] go into greater detail about the endemic and “survivor” species or larger groups listed here, most of which would occur in others of the IDU’s resident nations as well, in separate threads that are specifically about the types of animals rather than about the fauna of any one nation. Some notes about such matters that I am currently storing in this thread will be moved when I do that.
In the following sections I will use one or more asterisks* after a name to indicate that lineages endemic to the IDU, with the number of these marks indicating the number of taxonomic levels (starting, obviously, with the last one listed) for which this is the case: I will note in the accompanying text if a species or subspecies is actually endemic to just this one nation alone. A bracketed ‘dagger’ before a (†) name indicates the survival here of a lineage that is extinct in RL, but in this case you will need to check the following notes to find out how many levels of taxonomic rank are actually involved. I will note in the accompanying text if a species or subspecies is either actually endemic to just this one nation alone or not endemic to this continent at all.